• Preface


• 1: James Rachels: Must God's Commands Conform to Morality?


• 2: Peter Geach: Are There Limits to the Power of God?


• 3: Richard Swinburne: Why does God Allow Evil?


• 4: George N. Schlesinger: Is God Obliged to Make Us Happy?


• 5: Michael J. Murray: Why Does God Hide His Existence


• 6: Charles Taliaffero: Is God Vain?


• 7: Eleonore Stump: Why Does God Require Prayer?


• 8: Stephen T. Davis: Whom Does God Cosign to Hell?


• 9: Nicholas Wolterstorff: Does God Suffer


• 10: William Hasker: Does God Change?


• 11: Steven M. Cahn: Does God Know the Future?


• 12: John Hick: Do All Religions Worship the Same God?

Steven M. Cahn is Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. David Shatz is Professor of Philosophy at Yeshiva University.

From young children, with their guileless, searching questions, to the recently bereaved, trying to make sense of tragic loss, humans wrestle with our relationship to God--and with God's essence, motivations, and power--throughout our lives: Why does God permit catastrophe and senseless tragedy, again and again? Is God's power limited in any way? Can He change the past? Does He know the future? Why does God require prayer? Why does He not provide stronger evidence of His presence? Whom does God consign to hell, and why? Does God change? Suffer? What can we make of the conflicting diversity within world religions, of the many gods of different religious traditions?
Such questions engage, confront, and perplex us on a daily basis. In this rich, concise volume, leading philosophers who have long pondered God's nature and ways take on these core problems and present their findings in a manner likely to engage believer and non-believer, general reader and specialist alike.